Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia has reiterated his administration’s resolve to check multiple taxation in the state in order to attract investors.
Ikpeazu made the statement in Umuahia on Friday, when principal officers from Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA) paid him a visit.
He said that the government had not authorised anybody to extort money from people in the name of taxation, as Abia government had zero tolerance for touting.
He warned that the government might be compelled to close down the Ministry of Works premises in Aba, if touts continued to use it to launch attacks on innocent people under the guise of revenue collection.
The governor said that though crime and criminality could not be entirely wiped out because it is a social problem, the state had been peaceful.
He said that the state recorded increase in crime rate during the protests by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
He said that IPOB was infiltrated by hoodlums who hide under it to perpetrate crime during protest.
Ikpeazu urged the people of Abia to be vigilant, adding that the government was on top of the security situation and would not relent in its efforts to combat crime.
The President of ACCIMA, Mr Emmanuel Nwagbadolo, urged the government to address issues of touting, multiple taxation and kidnapping which had become the order of the day in Abia and particularly in Aba.
He warned that fears caused by ritual killings, kidnapping and touting were capable of discrediting the good vision of the administration.
Nwagbodolo stressed the need for the government to check the increasing rime rate in the state if it must be transformed to an investor’s haven.